The Presidential Election Commission (PEC), the judicial body tasked with supervising Egypt's upcoming presidential poll, announced on Monday that it was not able to meet as scheduled this week to begin the process which will see Egypt elect its second president in three years. On Monday Hamdan Fahmi, secretary-general of the five-member PEC, issued a statement saying the commission will now only meet “after a new law regulating the elections is issued by interim President Adli Mansour”. Mansour issued a presidential decree on 26 January saying polls must be held within 30 to 90 days from the promulgation of Egypt's newly-amended constitution. That was passed on18 January leading many to assume the process leading to presidential elections would begin on 18 February. Fahmy now argues that the 30 to 90 day time frame in Mansour's decree, as well as article 230 of the new constitution, actually applies to the PEC's preparation for the polls rather than the vote itself. “In other words”, explains Fahmy, “the PEC is not obliged to meet on 18 February or even announce the results of the polls within a certain period of time. What it must do is complete its preparations before the 90 days expire, which would be on 18 April.” Informed sources tell Al-Ahram Weekly that the PEC meeting was delayed mainly because Mansour's legal team has yet to complete the draft presidential election law. Ali Awad, Mansour's legal and constitutional affairs advisor, told the Weekly that the law had not been issued as expected on 17 February because of the number of proposed amendments suggested by political forces that need to be reviewed. Awad agrees with Fahmy that “neither article 230 of the constitution nor Mansour's 26 January decree stipulate that PEC must meet on 18 February”. “What is clear is that the PEC must begin preparing for the presidential polls within the 30 to 90 day time frame,” says Awad. He also revealed “Mansour's team has already finalized the new law and sent it on 17 February to the State Council's Department of Fatwas and Legislation for a final review”. “We hope that this review will take just a few days after which the law could be officially issued by President Mansour.” Magdi Al-Agati, chairman of the State Council's Department of Fatwas and Legislation, said on Monday that “the department's judicial and legislative experts will meet on Wednesday to begin their first discussion of the 59-article draft law”. “Although the department is not obliged to finalise the draft law within a fixed time frame it will hopefully meet on a daily basis in order to finish this national duty as soon as possible and help speed up the election process.” Legal experts agree the most contentious section of the new law is article 7 which allows both candidates and citizens to file appeals against the PEC's decisions. The article, says Awad, had been hotly debated. He refused, however, to disclose what the result of the debates was. According to Awad “the majority of submitted proposals were against appeals in presidential elections”. Informed sources have told Al-Ahram Weekly that article 7 has been altered to prevent appeals. “The president's legal team opted for this change at the request of the PEC which recommended appeals not be allowed,” said one. “This means that it will most likely be the same situation as Egypt's presidential elections in 2005 and 2012 when candidates were not allowed to file appeals.” Fahmy said the commission's judges had insisted that the PEC's decisions be immune from any kind of judicial scrutiny. Article 7 has provoked mixed reactions from legal experts and political factions alike. Mahmoud Al-Attar, a former deputy chairman of the State Council, argues that “allowing candidates to file appeals in presidential elections is in line with the new constitution, article 97 of which clearly implies administrative orders cannot be placed above judicial scrutiny”. But Nabil Helmi, a former dean of Cairo University's Faculty of Law, argues the PEC's decisions cannot be considered administrative orders. “This is a purely judicial body composed of senior members of the highest judicial authorities whose decisions cannot be reviewed by lower courts,” he said. PEC decisions cover a wide variety of issues, he elaborated, from setting the registration period and regulating election campaigns to announcing the final results. “If you allow appeals in all these matters you will leave the presidential polls a prey to a Pandora's box of legal challenges,” warned Helmi. Rifaat Al-Said, former chairman of the Tagammu party, said his party is against appeals and in favour of army chief Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi becoming Egypt's next president. Most youth revolutionary movements recommend allowing appeals, as do liberal politicians such as Mohamed Al-Orabi, a former foreign minister and chairman of the Congress Party. “Appeals will send a message of transparency and integrity to the world,” he said. Shaaban Abdel-Ali, a senior member of the ultraconservative Islamist Nour party, said they were in favour of allowing appeals. Awad also disclosed that the campaigning period had been reduced from one month to three weeks. Both Awad and Fahmi confirmed the PEC had a budget of LE15 million compared to the LE600 million allocated for the 2012 presidential polls. Awad said proposals that candidate's family members, including children, must not hold dual nationality had been rejected on the grounds that they contravene article 1 of the new constitution. “We also reconsidered another demand — that candidates undergo a health check-up before he registering,” said Awad. He added “the demand that the ceiling of campaign spending in the first round be raised from LE10 million to LE15 million was also considered”. Once the new law is issued, says Awad, “the PEC will meet to begin preparations for the elections”.
